Scott De Leon asked for the additional time after the roughly hour-and-a-half-long discussion on the proposed ordinance, which would implement new inspection and protection procedures to keep invasive quagga and zebra mussels – as well as other damaging species – out of Clear Lake and other county water bodies.
In particular, De Leon said the new ordinance would increase the penalty for launching a boat without a quagga sticker from an infraction to a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine.
County residents would be required to purchase an annual sticker for $10 per boat for vessels with registration numbers – smaller boats like kayaks, sculls and small sailboats would no longer need the stickers because De Leon said they're considered less risk – and visitors would have to purchase stickers for $10 each month. Boats that leave the county and come back must be reinspected.
De Leon said there currently are 2,600 registered water vessels in the county, but there are 6,000 on the tax rolls. The difference is in people who don't live here full-time but keep boats here, he said.
The screening process requires visual verification that the vessel is cleaned, drained and dry, De Leon said. Any necessary decontamination operations for boats would be operated by the county at no cost to the vessel owner.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington asked if the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District was going to make a contribution to the program, noting that there had been a discussion about a $20,000 commitment. The district owns the water rights to Clear Lake.
De Leon said he made a presentation to Yolo Flood's board of directors last week. “I think that that's moving in a positive direction,” he said.
Farrington said some of his constituents had voiced to him concerns about residents having to buy stickers at all. Explaining the program to the board, De Leon said, “We're trying to run a program that is protecting the future of the lake, not only for ourselves but for generations to come.”
He added, “If the quagga mussel gets in the lake, there's no eradicating it,” explaining that it will change the dynamics of Clear Lake's ecology “forever more.”
De Leon said having stickers for residents both provides a funding source and an education opportunity, as it gives his department a chance to communicate the importance of the program and, hopefully, impart a sense of ownership for the lake's health to community members. He said everyone has a stake in protecting Clear Lake.
Supervisor Denise Rushing said the county had looked at many options when they started trying to tackle the problem of how to keep the invasive mussels out of the lake. “Is this the best we can do? And if not is this the best we can do at this time?” she asked.
De Leon said the program is evolving into something bigger and better. “We are hopefully going to get people's attention that this is a pretty serious issue,” he said, adding he felt the proposed ordinance gives the program more teeth.
Ultimately, he said the county needs to decide how much effort to put into protecting its natural resources. He said there are 670 access ramps – more than 600 of them private – that make protecting the lake from invasives a huge challenge.
“We've been playing a probabilities game for awhile,” said Rushing, calling the mussels “a lake killer.”
Farrington has championed “choke points,” which would require around-the-clock inspections of boats coming into the county along the area's highways. Although he said that such a solution reduces risk more than any other measure, is isn't financially feasible just now.
With the seriousness of the mussel increasingly recognized, “All the stars are starting to align, I just hope we're not too late,” Farrington said, adding it's a terrible time for the state to be insolvent.
Among the stepped up public awareness measures, De Leon said Water Resources will put up actual stop signs at the top of all ramps, so people can't use the excuse that they haven't seen the signs. Water Resources also is considering posting pictures of the mussels and the damage they cause.
During public comment, the board heard from community members who complained about what they said was the program's punitive tone – rather than educational – and the difficulty it would create for boat owners who had multiple boats or boats that are moored and have no means to be moved.
Paul Racine, chairman of the board of directors for the Clear Lake Rimlanders Coalition, said he wanted to see a reasonable per-address fee for people who live on the lake and have many boats.
Betsy Cawn said the county needed to look at grant opportunities, and added that the county's water purveyors could assist with educating the public, as many of them send out monthly notices. She also asked the county to put up “massive” signs warning of the mussel risk.
Conrad Colbrandt wasn't happy about having to purchase the resident stickers – he calculated he would have to pay $120 annually – and suggested that Water Resources staff shouldn't have been selling the new stickers to residents ahead of the board's formal adoption of the new ordinance. Supervisor Rob Brown said stickers were already a part of the program.
Colbrandt said the county could run the program on enforcement alone – by fining those without the old stickers – and accused Water Resources of defrauding the public.
Supervisor Jeff Smith, who has four boats of his own that will require stickers, said, “I know how important this program is, and I'm more than happy to pay my 40 bucks.”
Smith pointed out that, under the old ordinance, kayaks and other small boats would have been required to have stickers, so the cost to boat owners actually is going down.
De Leon asked to bring the draft language back to the board next week. With board members suggesting they wanted a “fleet rate,” he wanted to explore that concept further.
Brown said it didn't have to be perfect, that it was an ordinance, not the constitution, pointing out, “There's nothing like this to go by anywhere.” He suggested other areas may end up using Lake County's ordinance as a model.
De Leon said he would also discuss ideas with program participants and bring back a modified ordinance to the board.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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